


Photograph

by WaitWhoAmIAgain



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (it means fear of ants), Ants, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Flashbacks, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Help, Homesick Lance (Voltron), I can't believe that's not a tag, I think this is set in season 2, I'm having trouble writing this, Lactose Intolerant Keith (Voltron), M/M, Milkshakes, My First AO3 Post, Myrmecophobia, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining Keith (Voltron), Sort Of, Work In Progress, bonding moment, keith is scared of cows, season 8 never happened, when everyone was happy and alive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-04-19 17:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19137121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaitWhoAmIAgain/pseuds/WaitWhoAmIAgain
Summary: Lance takes a mugshot of Keith. Keith wants to get revenge. It basically goes downhill from there. Updates will be infrequent, chapters will be short and the story will be short also. Hopefully.





	1. First Photo

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this fanfic is actually quite short, I've no idea how people write amazing and so long ones! This is my very first fanfic so please don't judge me, also I wrote this as procrastination for revision. Have fun reading it... I guess. By the way I suck at chapter titles, literally couldn't think of anything better.

“Keith! Smile!” Lance shouted from the other side of the room.  


Before Keith could have a chance to think, Lance had whipped out his phone and taken a picture. Lance clicked on it to see the results and sat down, sniggering quietly. Keith was confused - what just happened? He walked over to where Lance was sat to find out what he was giggling about.

“Your face, Keith! Your face!”

Keith peered over Lance’s shoulder to get a proper look at the photo. Slightly blurred, way too zoomed in but very clear to see that he looked like a confused puppy who had just lost its owner on a walk. Keith rolled his eyes and said, “I don’t understand what’s so funny.” In response, Lance zoomed in even more so now only Keith’s face was visible.

“You look like -” Lance said in between wheezes - “someone - has just run over your - favourite stick insect! Or something. Can’t you see it, Keith? Can’t you see the resemblance?”

“I guess.”

“You know what? - I am going to have this printed. Quality photograph. Beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes.” By now, Lance was on the brink of crying with laughter. 

Keith began to walk away, muttering something about immaturity, and Lance was left on his own, still laughing at the photo.

  


A day later, Keith was helping his friend Pidge on a technological problem they had encountered. It wasn’t like he was good at that sort of thing, it was because Hunk was making ‘stress cookies’ again (who knows what he was worrying about), Lance was eagerly waiting by the oven to try a batch whilst telling Hunk he was an amazing chef - probably to get on the right side of Hunk and to get more cookies, and Allura and Shiro were trying to upload an updated map of the Galra to the ship’s software. Keith was there just to - he wasn’t really sure what he was doing there but there he was. Also, he found out that they had a lot in common besides all of the technology things - for example, they both believed in Mothman, and they both were into music like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco (Death of a Bachelor was both their favourite album).

On his way there, Keith passed his bedroom door. At first he walked straight past it, then realised there was something glued to his door. He retraced his steps and saw that Lance had been true to his word - it was a printed out picture of his sad face with doodles of broken hearts all over it in red pen, and a scribbled note that read “Why the long face?”. Keith took the paper off his door and folded it up so nobody else would be able to see it, and he carried on his way.

  


  


“So you’re saying I should get revenge on him?” Keith asked incredulously.

“Well, yeah, of course! That would be my number one priority,” Pidge responded with a somewhat evil smile whilst typing away into their computer.

“I just...I’m not sure it will work. I wouldn’t really know how to go about it…”

“Keith. Look at me.” Pidge looked at him with an unimpressed face. “It’s easy. When he’s not concentrating on you and doing something weird, quickly take out your phone and take a photo. Simple. Ok? Is that clear? Earth to Keith?”

By this point, Keith was staring at nothing in particular and obviously in another galaxy to Pidge, so when they said his name he sat bolt upright.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“Keith, there’s something on your mind. Spill the beans.”

“I was just thinking… what if I don’t really want to get revenge on Lance? I mean, it was all just a joke, and… I don’t want Lance to get upset or anything… d’you know what I’m saying?”

“Yes, but Keith, the best way to know is  _ to just do it _ . Ok? Pep talk over.” Pidge began to stare at their screen, looking bemused. “Whaddaya mean, Error? But I already put in that function! No - no, don’t start crashing on me -  _ ugh! _ ” They got up forcefully from the chair they were sitting on, still glaring at the computer. “This is going to have to wait for another day, preferably one where I have more patience.”

Keith was left alone, thinking about what he should do.

  


That night, when they were eating food goo (Keith a bit more reluctantly than the others - the taste had grown on him, it was the appearance of green slime that was the unappealing part), Lance was talking about the infamous mugshot to Hunk. 

“And I took the photo at the perfect moment - and look at the result!” Lance took out another -  _ another  _ printed picture of Keith’s face and showed it to Hunk. The reaction was immediate. He choked on the goo he was eating.

“That. Is. Amazing.”

“I know right? All thanks to Keith, my buddy, for posing.”

They both laughed while Keith rolled his eyes. It was that moment when he decided he would follow Pidge’s advice and get revenge.


	2. Awkward Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith decides to spend the day with Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really short chapter... anyway updates should be fairly more frequent now. Maybe. Can't keep any promises.

The next day, Keith made a decision that he wasn’t going to go to the training room for the morning. He was going to follow Lance wherever he went, and wait for the perfect moment. In his head, it seemed like a pretty foolproof plan, but now he was beginning to see the slight setbacks of it. He was going to have to spend a whole day with Lance. And that would definitely look suspicious.

“Keith? You’re usually in the training room at this time?” Lance turned around and stared incredulously at him.

“No .. uh …” Instinctively Keith’s hand found the back of his neck. Really, he should have seen that his ‘flawless’ strategy was not going to work. “I thought that… um.. maybe I could take the day off? Because..” God, he was bad at lying.

“Yeah, you’ve been training really hard for the past few weeks. I understand, man.” Keith breathed a sigh of relief; Lance had saved him.

“But… why did… no, it’s not my question to ask.”

“Lance?”

“Never mind.” Lance pouted and folded his arms.

“Lance, say what’s on your mind.” Now Keith was curious. What was Lance going to ask him? What was making him so hesitant and indecisive? This wasn’t the outgoing boy that he knew.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Better just to drop the subject. “Alright then.. So where do you usually go, while everyone’s doing other stuff?” No, scratch that, that sentence sounded like Lance was a loner, and made him sound like a stalker. Why was this so difficult?

“Well… I take care of Kaltenecker, obviously… milk her and make sure she’s got enough food – y’know, I don’t understand why Allura and Coran are so resistant to try the milkshakes – I guess the whole cow thing puts them off?”

“I guess.. are you going to Kaltenecker now? Because if it’s alright with you, I’d kind of like to go too? Maybe. You can say no. If you want.” Why was every sentence he said so embarrassing?

“Yeah, definitely! Come with me!”

_Stay on track. Focus. You are going only to take a photo of Lance as revenge for him taking a picture of you. Nothing else._

Turns out that was a lot harder than he thought it would be.


	3. Kaltenecker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The awkward conversations continue, except with a cow in the middle of it all. By the way, Keith is scared of cows and that is definitely canon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank God exams are over. I don't know where this story is going to end up (that's definitely not the sign of a good writer, oops) but I have a vague idea... I may have slightly sidetracked the whole "photograph" thing but I promise it will come up. Maybe.  
> I got the idea off of the first prompt of Klancey May 2019, which is titled Selfie, but it didn't really work as a selfie so it's just a picture.......for now.  
> Anyways enjoy the chapter I guess?

“Wow. This place - really stinks.” Keith honestly had nothing else to say. He never had really been here before to visit the cow (he didn’t really see the need to, Lance was looking after her so why should he?), and couldn’t focus on anything except the smell.

 

“Well, duh, of course it does, this is a cow we’re talking about.” Lance rolled his eyes at Keith’s obvious disgust. “You get used to it after a while, plus I live -” He paused for a moment, then corrected himself, “ - sorry, _used_ to live on a farm, so it’s kinda normal for me.”

 

Keith could see that it was a sensitive subject for Lance, so looked around desperately for a change of topic, wildly searching to get rid of the weird awkwardness that never usually was there when he talked to Lance.

 

All he could see was Kaltenecker, which he didn’t particularly want to talk about - no offense to cows or anything, they were great and all, but Keith just didn’t like them. Especially since he was lactose intolerant. When he saw a cow, he thought of milk, and that made him want to throw up, so going here had been a big leap of bravery for him, in a way. Also, they were actually kind of scary when they got angry! Anyway, back on topic…

 

So, there was Kaltenecker. Keith looked around a bit more but he could only see the cow, her “stables” and her “field” - hang on -

 

“This Altean technology is pretty cool.” He breathed a sigh of relief, he had managed to change the subject somehow.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, look around you… you never get this sort of virtual reality on Earth. It’s a totally  immersive experience and you don’t even need a headset or any fancy equipment. It’s just … there.” Keith’s arm gestured to emphasise his point.

 

“I guess I’ve never really thought about it that way before. I just saw it as a home for Kaltenecker, and she’s been pretty content as it is. Doesn’t even notice it’s not natural.”

 

“That just shows how stupid cows are.” Keith couldn’t help but saying it - he really did have it in for those animals.

 

Lance visibly gasped and put his hands around Kaltenecker’s ears, looking at Keith with a mingled expression of fake shock, anger and disapproval: “You can’t say that in front of her!” _Now was a great time for a photo opportunity,_ a small part inside Keith’s brain nagged. No, he would wait for the best moment, and just enjoy spending some time with Lance in the meantime.

 

“How about I make you a milkshake?” Lance interrupted his thoughts.

 

“Huh? What’d you say?”

 

“Milkshake. I mean, if you don’t want to, that’s alright, at the Garrison you were kind of a picky eater…”

 

“What?! How do you remember that?” Keith stared incredulously at Lance. At the Garrison, he usually sat on his own eating lunch, because he just didn’t want to be around people like James Griffin, otherwise the scene would probably wind up as Shiro coming to talk to Iverson because of Keith’s poor behaviour (once again), and he didn’t want that. It was amazing that someone actually remembered him (“Lance and Keith, neck and neck”), but to have someone remember his eating habits? Impossible. He normally just tried to blend into the background at the Garrison, and _sometimes_ that worked, but other times, obviously it did not.

 

“When I was sitting with my friends, I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t really eat, you just moved the food around a bit with your fork and pretended to take a few bites whenever a teacher was looking. I guessed that was probably because you just didn’t like the food there. And I understand, it was awful.”

 

“Oh - oh. Ok.” So Lance watched him try to eat as he sat all alone? Not weird, definitely not weird at all (sarcasm intended). “Um… I guess I wouldn’t mind having a milkshake?”

 

What was he saying? He was lactose intolerant, for god’s sake. Of course he couldn’t have a milkshake, he’d probably be sick or something. Still, the words just slipped out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to think about what he was saying. Maybe he just didn’t want to upset Lance.

 

“Uh… if it’s all right with you, I’m just going to …” Keith gestured to the door. "... go to my room because, yeah..." He didn't want to admit that he didn't want to watch the milking of Kaltenecker because it made him turn green (Shiro had proof when they went to visit a farm ages ago), but thankfully Lance just nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the people who give kudos, it makes me feel loved as an AO3 writer, and that someone's actually reading and liking my work <3<3  
> Also sorry for the really bad ending, I had block of the writer and could not think of anything else


	4. Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith muses (great word) in the privacy of his room. Fun times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry for really slow updates! Everything has been very stressful right now because of a lot of summer concerts and stuff, hopefully I'll be able to finish the story by July because that's when I won't be able to write for a couple of weeks, but who knows .............  
> Also this is a really short chapter :(

What. The. Actual. Hell.

 

This was the phrase that was running around Keith’s head as he paused for breath at the door to his room. After Lance had excused him, he had full-on sprinted to his bedroom, anything to get rid of the massive awkwardness that shrouded them both. 

 

What. The. Actual. Hell.

 

This had started off with a sort of joke - getting payback for the photo that Lance took, nothing more than that. But he had gotten distracted, what with Lance dragging him (OK, maybe not the greatest choice of words, how about  _ persuading _ him) to see Kaltenecker, he had forgotten all about the task he had set himself. He had lost himself in the moment. He had to stay on track.

 

However, what was a bit more unnerving than Keith not being able to do one simple job was to see Lance look insecure when he talked about - well, anything really. Lance was always the one with way too much confidence, flirting with just about every person he met, never hesitating to pull out his signature finger guns. It was strange seeing Lance look so homesick, and Keith wanted to comfort him, tell him that he would see his family again, tell him that there’s no need to worry --

 

No, no, no, this wasn’t what he was supposed to be thinking about, it was just a photograph, for god’s sake! Just one small tiny picture. It definitely did not need a repeat of the infamous bonding moment.

 

Speaking of which…

 

No, we were not going to get into that. Save that rant for another time.

 

Why did speaking with Lance have to be so awkward? It would have been fine spending the day with Pidge (but, admittedly, they wouldn’t talk as much), or Hunk, who was just about the sweetest guy in the entire universe, so why did it have to be so uncomfortable? To be truthful, though, Keith didn’t really spend that much time with Lance anyway, he wasn’t on that close terms as he probably should be, if they were all Paladins of Voltron. Maybe this day would help them become a bit closer, so they could be a good team again.

 

There was a nagging thought at the back of his mind, just as he was about to leave. What if… what if he was thinking of all these things - what if Keith was being really awkward around him - because of a reason? Because, maybe, Keith kind of _liked_ Lance? No, it had to be impossible. Lance was just a guy who he barely knew, to be honest, and plus, the sharpshooter was most definitely straight (or at least that’s what it looked like to Keith), so it didn’t make much sense. But it was the only explanation he had to offer. And even if Keith liked him, there was probably be only a 2% chance that it wasn’t unrequited. Great statistics to go by. 

  
  
  


There was only one thought going around Keith’s head as he started to walk back to Kaltenecker and Lance: just take the goddamn photo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to people who give kudos, it's nice that people are reading and liking my work, seeing as this is my first AO3 post!!!!! Also, I was thinking of doing a voltron chat fic but have no idea on what should happen in the story. If people would give me suggestions that would be amazing !!!!!


	5. Milkshakes and Confessions Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ha these aren't the kind of confessions you were thinking of... though I promise the floof will come :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I was postponing this chapter for ages because I couldn't think of what to write, but here we are! Also I might disappear for a couple of weeks because I will be going away but I will try and see if I can multitask (not one of my greatest talents I assure you).

Back at Kaltenecker's "stables", Lance was proudly holding two glasses of what looked like poison to Keith.

 

"You missed all the fun, Keith! Where did you go?"

 

Oh. He didn't think this through. He needed a reason?

 

"Um... I'm ... I'm sorry. I just ... I'm ..."

 

"Spit it out, Keith."

 

"I'm scared of cows, okay?" Wow, that came out much louder than he had expected. Lance looked positively startled, staring at him with wide eyes.

 

Then he started laughing. First a quiet snicker, which gradually built up into really loud howling that managed to shake his whole body. Keith had to hold the two milkshakes so they didn’t spill everywhere while Lance doubled over in laughter.

 

"I'm sorry... you're scared... of cows?! That's the funniest thing I've ever heard!"

 

No - stop -  he wasn’t going to let Lance make fun of him again!  He averted his eyes because a blush was creeping up his cheeks. Although… it was pretty funny if you thought about it. He was only realising the hilariousness of the situation just now - he was scared of cows. Nobody could hear that out loud without smiling a little. 

 

“Yeah, you’re right, it is a little stupid.” The smile had spread across his face and he even was laughing a bit. It actually felt kind of nice that Lance was laughing at something he said, even if it was making fun of his fear.

 

“How did it happen?” Lance asked, whilst offering Keith the poison cream drink as they sat down in the field.

 

“I don’t think I know what you mean.”

 

“Come on, Keith! Every phobia has a beginning! Like my fear of … nope, not gonna say.”

 

“Why? Is it embarrassing?” Keith raised his eyebrows at Lance. “Because if it tops mine, you would probably get a medal.” 

 

“True, but I think it does.” 

 

“Spit it out then.” Keith took a small sip of the milkshake and instantly regretted it. Why did he say yes to it in the first place? Just to be polite? Why couldn’t he have said no, and told Lance that he was lactose intolerant? Just - why?

 

“I’m scared of … of ants. I’ve got myrmecophobia. It’s stupid, I know -”

 

“I’m sorry, is that actually a word? Murmucomuphobia?”

 

“It’s myrmecophobia. I found it out when I was like seven.”

 

“Well ants are pretty weird, there’s nothing stupid about being scared of them.” Keith was smiling again - he couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Usually they didn’t really talk that much, but if they did they would always be arguing about battle strategies or something like that, so that Shiro would have to split them apart. “Anyway, tell me about how your fear started.”

 

“OK, so when I was like seven years old or something, I’m not sure what exact age. I was playing with my younger sister Veronica - but the funny thing is, I wasn’t great with big words as a baby so I shortened her name to Nica, and the nickname stuck - so I was playing with Nica and we were sitting down in the garden in Cuba, right? And I think I had brought out my lego Transformers - yeah, it was definitely Bumblebee. And we didn’t notice at the time, but we were actually sitting on an ant hill. So we were playing there -  and then suddenly out of nowhere, all these thousands of insects just start spilling out of a hole we never even knew was there, we started screaming and they literally moved my Bumblebee away. I was just standing there shrieking and we had no idea what was going on, until  Mamá was wondering what all the noise was about, and she just saw us both bawling our eyes out and just picked us up and plonked us inside.

 

“Later, she asked us what we saw that made us cry like we had just seen the Devil Incarnate, but we couldn’t say what we saw, just that it carried away my Bumblebee, and that they were small and scary. Mamá had realised that we were sitting on an ant hill at the time, and told us what they were, and ever since I have been traumatised from the experience. Even just thinking about them makes me shiver.”

 

Keith had kind of been listening to Lance ramble on, but was focused on other, more important things. Like the way Lance would tell a story that was set on Earth, he would use his arms a lot, trying to carve out the picture with his hands. Like the way he talked about his little sister and the nickname he gave her, he would smile fondly for a second then it was back to talking again. Like the facial expressions Lance used which energized his story about 150% more. Like the way --

 

“So what about yours, Keith?”

 

“Huh?” 

 

“We’ve been through this already, Keith! Every phobia has to have a beginning.” Lance took a long slurp of the milkshake and smacked his lips. “Thanks, Kaltenecker, this is amazing!”

 

“Okay, okay, okay. I’ll tell you.”

 

* * *

 

****Continued next chapter****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahaaaaaa now you have to wait until the next chapteeerrrrr  
> (Laughs maniacally because it gives the author time to write another chapter and leaves it on a cliff hanger - two stones with one bird and don't tell me it's not that phrase)
> 
>  
> 
> Being afraid of ants is a valid thing, it's actually called myrmecophobia and my friend has it. It's generally related to a phobia of insects so that if you hate ants you'll probably hate spiders (arachnophobia), wasps (Spheksophobia) and other stuff. The phobia of insects in general is Entomophobia .  
> Also, this is where I found ideas for being scared of cows  
> https://www.jennyfaraway.com/afraid-of-cows/  
> Dpes anyone here have taurophobia?  
> Edit: Oh my god I've got over 100 hits I'm actually smiling so wide thank you guys


End file.
